Pot dethrones cigarettes – the number of US College students that smoke pot is on the rise. A recent study found that the smokeable weed became so popular amongst students to the point cigarettes were thrown off the map.
The study was published in Monitoring the Future and surveyed no more than 6% of the full-time students of University of Michigan, but researchers are planning to extend the scope of their study. The study declared that more than half of the students were using pot 20 times a month, or almost daily, whereas the number of heavy cigarette smokers reduced drastically from a 19% (in 1999) to 5%.
Lloyd Johnston, declares that students have understood the dangers of cigarette smoking but there is an increasing silent revolution going on regarding marijuana as not only being harmless, but having health benefits.
In the past eight or nine years there has been a noticeable increase in pot use among the US college students, and that can be also seen among high school seniors.
As in 2014, the percentage of daily marijuana users is the highest ever recorded at the University of Michigan. The survey found that the year also marked the first time where pot use supplanted cigarette smoking.
Other statistics show that 21% of the college students said they had smoked weed at least one time in the previous month, and other 34% declared that they had used the substance in the past years.
However, whereas the marijuana use is at its prime, the survey showed that alcohol abuse is at its lowest in 30 years, with only 5% of individuals admitting to have engaged in heavy drink consumption – defined as at least 15 drinks in a row once in the past couple of weeks.
It is difficult to say whether cocaine is making a comeback on US campuses, with the number of students declaring they had used the substance in their previous year increasing from 3% to almost 5% over the last two years.
Johnston gives a good news to the parents that are planning to send their children to college this year: more than half of the study participants said that in the past year they had not used any illegal drugs.
Photo credits: Flickr
